Forever/I Want My Braid
by LaceyKoi
Summary: gay themes (i got that from the movie section of the newspaper), death (i was reading a FEW too many deathfics...) 1x2, we'll assume 3x4, relena never knew about 1x2


Duo walked up to the coffin and looked inside at the still body of his lover one last time. He kissed his fingertips before running them over Heero's cheek, almost more animate in death than life. Duo pulled out his handkerchief, something Quatre had given him that he truly valued, but he had tie dyed it to match the contrast between his lover's eyes and his own. He wiped his eyes, crying silent tears, his vocal cords too tight to speak through.  
  
Quatre, Trowa, Wufei, Relena, and anyone who ever thought they meant something to Heero Yuy watched as Duo dropped his handkerchief in the coffin. Relena leaned over and whispered to Quatre.  
  
"Isn't it kind of tacky that he would wear that ratty old cap to his best friend's funeral?"  
  
Quatre just looked at the girl who had spent her life building illusions to protect herself.  
  
"Well, at least he's wearing black. I would have absolutely _died_ if he had worn, oh… sea green to Heero's funeral! I never would have forgiven him. Heero _never_ would have wanted him to do something like that."  
  
Quatre had stopped listening to her before she spoke; his eyes were fixed on Duo.  
  
His tears dripped down his face, landing one by one on Heero's body. In silence that none could match, he lifted Heero's hand to his lips, giving a gentle kiss for his love. Then Duo's pained wail broke the silence.  
  
"_TAKE_ my tears, Heero! Take my tears, my love, take everything! You can have it all! But of _everything_ I have, everything I _wanted_, why did they have to take you?!" Duo collapsed on his knees, still crying with the tears he had refused to shed over the tears.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, Quatre saw Relena stand. He placed a calm hand on her shoulder, staring at Duo. Tears began to fall from his own eyes.  
  
Instead of sitting down with everyone else for any part of the funeral, Duo stayed on the floor by Heero's coffin, wiping his eyes on Heero's fingers. No one really paid any attention to anyone but Duo. He was leaking so much pain that everyone, not just Quatre, felt it.  
  
When the priest had finished speaking, Quatre and Trowa made their way to the front. Wufei had refused to come, saying that it was too much already. Each laid a hand on Duo's shoulder. The boy didn't even look up, just cried into Heero's lifeless hand.  
  
Trowa pulled Duo to his feet, and began helping him to walk. The procession made it's way to the graveyard where Duo had requested that Heero be buried. No matter where anyone was, their eyes turned to seek out the depressed boy in black.  
  
Duo cried into Quatre's shoulder as words were spoken over Heero. When everyone else was prepared to drop roses on Heero's coffin, Duo stepped forward and asked one of the men from the war who had been pallbearers to open the coffin. After all his tears, his face was still impossible to refuse, the man managed to get the coffin open. Duo looked inside, tears gone. He shook his head in sadness, pulling out a box no one had noticed, however many movements of his they had watched. Two curious eyes for almost every life Heero had touched watched, wondering, as he opened the box.  
  
Duo took out a long chestnut braid. He looked at his forever possession, whispering Heero's name.  
  
Duo knelt on the ground and placed the braid inside the coffin. He then ran back to the comforting circle of Quatre's arms. He pulled away and nodded, asking for it all to be over. Duo whispered the words along with the priest, tears returning. At "Amen," he pulled his cap off. Duo's hair was cut in ways unimaginable. Each person realized that he had cut his own hair off rather than allow anyone else to do it for him. Anyone looking at Duo at that moment saw that his eyes were darker with the pain…Duo's eyes were darker than black.  
  
One spot in the clouds broke, shedding a sparkling ray of sunlight on the coffin being lowered into the ground. Duo stepped into the sunlight, looking up into the sky.  
  
"Heero!" Duo's voice was thicker with tears than it had appeared all day. "Next time I see you…I want that braid back!!!!"  
  
The cloud slowly dispersed, till only Duo remained. Then a feather, half black and half white, floated to the ground, landing just in front of Duo's feet.  
  
Duo picked up his gift, smiling as he saw the character etched into it.  
  
"Forever…"  
  
Many years later, Duo died within his own home. Everyone gathered argued for many years as to what his last words had been.  
  
You see, everyone had heard him say "Forever," though, it being in Japanese, not many knew what he had said.  
  
Those gathered closer swore they had heard him whisper, "Heero…I want my braid…" 


End file.
